1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a parts feeding system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system for feeding parts to a parts mounter, which can be utilized for the process of assembling an electronic circuit board with electronic parts.
2. Description of the prior art
As a parts feeding system in an electronic parts mounter, an apparatus has been dominant in which a plurality of parts feeding cassettes are detachably arranged on a single table and an arbitrary parts feeding cassette is placed in a parts taking-out position by linearly moving the table. In addition, an apparatus having a plurality of tables has been recently put into practice. An example of such an apparatus can be seen in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 140499/1987. This apparatus has two tables, so that a worker can supply one table with parts while parts are fed by the other table, and the operating efficiency thereof is made higher than that of an apparatus having only one table.
In the above described system, a worker must go to the apparatus to replace a parts feeding cassette or to supply parts to the parts feeding cassette every time when the parts on the table run out. In addition, all parts feeding cassettes may, in some cases, be exchanged at the time of changing the kinds or types of a circuit board to be assembled, so that the worker must perform laborious work in a short time so as to increase the operation efficiency of the apparatus.